Gary Brown
| Special to The Canton Repository
CANTON – Reading the newest book by Canton sports history author Roger Gordon – “Cleveland Guardians A-Z” is the third in a set of alphabet histories about Cleveland sports teams – seems an appropriate offseason activity for northeast Ohio lovers of baseball.
Read it. Learn from it. Discuss the facts on its pages with others until the gates to Progressive Field swing open next season for Guardians fans.
“It’s the completion of my trilogy,” said Gordon, who also wrote “Cleveland Browns A-Z” and “Cleveland Cavaliers A-Z.” In total, Gordon has 14 books to his credit, 13 on sports history plus one recently published humor book, “And Then There Was the Time.”
Gordon’s baseball book uses the alphabet to share the history of the Guardians from the late John Adams, who played the bass drum in the bleachers for every home game between 1973 through 2019, to Sam Zoldak, a relief pitcher from 1948 to 1950. The presence of Adams shows there are entries in the book beyond former players.
“I wanted more than just players,” Gordon said. “For all three of the books I wanted anything noteworthy I could look up or remember that relates to the history of the team.”
That history, Gordon chronicles, unfolded with players competing under the nicknames Blues, Napoleons, Naps, Indians and Guardians.
“The Guardians have been around for 124 years,” Gordon notes in the preface to his book. “They have had good times and not-so-good times. I hope ‘Cleveland Guardians A-Z’ brings back memories galore for older fans of the team and that younger fans learn about the history of the franchise – both in a fun way.”
Became a fan when he was young
Gordon, who lives in Canton, wrote the preface of his book with reflections on being a young fan of the Guardians. He listened to radio broadcasts of games – a few on television – as a child, with the voices of Joe Tait, Herb Score, Nev Chandler, Mudcat Grant and Bruce Drennan still speaking in his memory.
“The number of games I missed were few and far between,” he wrote in the preface, noting that “one of the few games I missed was (Len) Barker’s perfect game on May 15, 1981.”
“Actually, I did see the first two innings,” he recalled, remembering his mother had called him from the game for a synagogue service. When the service was over, Gordon asked his father to tune to the game on the car radio.
“The first words I heard came from color analyst Score in a tone that made it seem like no big deal anymore, ‘And once again, Lenny Barker throws a perfect game for the Indians.’ But then and still now, it was a very big deal.”
That accomplishment and a multitude of other achievements and failures by the team are included at the beginning of Gordon’s book in a 31-page, text-style “Decade-By-Decade Timeline” that traces the most notable events and personalities of the franchise.
“The fun part was the timeline,” he said. That text-heavy section required the most writing following months of researching, he said. “I tried to be very in-depth with that.”
Statistics abound in book
Following the timeline is the alphabetical section of players, front-office employees, events and noteworthy achievements throughout the history of the Indians and Guardians.
Some names will seem familiar for today’s fans – Sandy Alomar Jr., Albert Belle, Joe Charboneau, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel. Some others, though historically significant – Vic Power, Jimmy Piersall, Bob Feller, Nap Lajoie, Larry Doby, Rocky Colavito, Lou Boudreau, and Early Wynn – may be less recognizable to young fans.
Sprinkled among individuals are such lists as Cleveland’s Baseball Hall of Fame enshrinees, All-Star players, managers and coaches through the team’s history, Cy Young and Gold Glove awards winners, Negro League players who debuted in the Major Leagues with the franchise, opening day starting lineups, longest winning streaks, retired numbers, and radio and television broadcasters from 1948 to 2024.
Sections offering trivia about the team and a wealth of individual and team statistics conclude Gordon’s book.
“It’s a stats-heavy book.” said Gordon. “It’s great if you want to learn a lot about the Guardians.
Gordon said he learned much during researching, especially about the team’s earliest years, the decades before his childhood interest was piqued.
“I learned, for example, that for the very first year, 1901, they didn’t have a nickname. They were just known as Cleveland.”
He said the book likely will bring back a mixture of happy and sad memories for longtime fans.
“Ten-cent beer night is in the book,” he said. “And, I included the boating accident in 1993 in which two players (pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews) unfortunately were killed.”
The author said “Cleveland Guardians A-Z” is organized to be a book read in snippets.
“It’s not a book you have to read from cover to cover to understand. You can pick it up and go to any page and learn something or bring back a memory.”
Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On “X”: @gbrownREP.
About the book
Title: “Cleveland Guardians A-Z”
Author: Roger Gordon
Publisher: Lyons Press, Globe Pequot Publishing Group
Price: $24.95 ($17.99 Kindle) through online booksellers.